It's been a minute since I've posted a blog.Let's get into it. I've dabbled in armor and leather craft off and on over the years but it's not been until recently that I've made anything that I'd like to wear on the field.

I'm going to keep using this OP as kind of revolving index of what I'm working on. It'll have links and stuff that will take you around the Bel boards so you don't have to hunt down my posts.I'll also share links to other sites and stuff that I get ideas and lessons from.

I'll do my best to answer questions in a timely manner but I do spend most my time on Facebook or my blog. So, yeah...

About me:I've been fighting with Belegarth for 10 years now. I'm a squire preparing to get knighted at Chaos Wars 17. I'm mostly active in Western Bel but I'm looking to change that now that money isn't so tight as it used to be.As far as making armor goes, I'm mostly self taught but I did get lessons from a great SCA knight in Idaho named Reinmar. So I know how to treat armor with wax to make it SCA battle ready. That's fun and I might do some more of that in the future but for the most part we don't need to harden our leather armor for Belegarth. Squishy foam being our primary weapon material and all.

I'm all about large areas of texture, lots of tooling, and high color contrast. It might not be everyone's flavor but it's what I do. I'm also a servant in God's Army and a crusader of truth and justice so I let that theme bleed into my personal projects. (God Squad for life)

Like I said, I'm mostly self taught so don't look at these posts as tutorials. I will make mistakes and might even give up on stuff once in a while. Hopefully I'll work most problems out but I have been known to surprise even myself with how thick I can be.

If there is interest I may open up for some commissions but at the moment I'm not really set up to do big or numerous projects.I might slap a price tag on something once in a while.I'll try to keep that in Buy/Sell/Trade and include links here when I've got stuff for sale.

There is a new Tandy Leather Store in town so I have taken advantage of their grand opening sale.I've also been hitting up my university store's art supply department and I got some great deals on stuff like cutting tools, cutting mats, and sponges and brushes.

For this new year and to warm myself up to tooling again I started work on some greaves.My goal was to have them ready to go before Battle for the Ring 5 which I mostly did but only because I made the straps onsite. I kind of rushed them too so the straps and buckles are a little wonky. I'll replace them later. I had an old side that needed cutting into. It floats around 10-13oz which is a little thick for what I normally want but this was for greaves so whatever.This was a great opportunity to do three things: use a grid with my new stamps, use a new dye brand, and use a tooling pattern.

Like I said, I'm all about color and high contrasts so if this sickens you, turn back now.Also, somebody said that I look like a Lego knight. Good, because I love Legos.

I started with a template that I borrowed from my main man Rope.Yeah, I'm lazy and didn't make my own. So what?I adjusted the template to fit the look I had in my head. Mostly, I just widened the parts around the ankle and added an arch to the top to make it taller than my shins.

I bought a set of French Curves a few days after I cut these out. They would have helped out so much. Man, if you make garb or armor, buy a set. I think the plastic ones that I bought were like $4 for the set. Maybe I'll post up something where I used them later.

Here are the two blanks.Oh and FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!So yeah, I botched these. I have my rights and lefts correct but I didn't look over the hide as closely as I should have before I cut into it.As a result, there is a huge mar and hole in the left greave just above the ankle.At first I didn't know what to do other than make a greave with a hole in it. I considered making straps that would cover it but that would break up the horizontal lines that I had envisioned. (I'm short, I need all the horizontals that I can get.)I came up with a game plan.

Here is where I outlined my design before I cut it out with my swivel knife. I use a 02 Micron fine point pen to trace my final lines onto the leather. I only use this where I plan on running over with the swivel knife. The ink is water proof so it stays on after I soak the leather and lets me see what I'm doing.http://i47.tinypic.com/2rf6gs1.jpgI didn't have a compass on hand so I just guessed that my drafting tape would fit the lion stencil I planned on using. http://i46.tinypic.com/14brrc.jpg

Here are the two blades that I will be using for this part:One is a flat 1/2inch blade and the other is a thinner 1/4 inch blade with a taper. I can't remember what the sizes are really called but bare with me. The smaller one is for detail lines and small curves.http://i48.tinypic.com/35n4osm.jpg

This is the pattern I used to decorate each greave. All you need to do is wet the leather and mush the pattern into the surface. It'll be subtle but enough to cut out. I had had this one for years and never used it. There are catalogs of patterns that work like this. Search for some and seriously, you'll find hundreds. It's kind of a fun thing to try.

Ah, yeah...This will look good but the time it eats up is not cool.I watched a lot of Hulu while I rattled my work surface tooling these out.

Hours later:Let that dry out. I put mine in the oven a little just to get the residual moisture out of them but they probably didn't need it.

Don't be a dumbass. Use gloves and do your dying in a shop or garage.Dye ruins everything. (Or do it in your house, I don't really care)http://i46.tinypic.com/21do8jb.jpgCut up your sponges to get more uses out of them. No need to waste a whole sponge making one piece of armor.

Look at that blue! Holy *! That Eco-flow dye makes really vibrant color. You can pretty much paint with it. It is really expensive though. Also, it doesn't dilute with alcohol so don't make that mistake like I did. After playing around with it on some samples, I just added it directly to leather for the best color I could get.

Now, they didn't have metallic gold dye or else I'd buy them out of it. Acrylic paint works great too. It just needs to be given a finishing coat of something to protect it from flaking off then the leather bends and stretches. Speaking of I just use cheap as dirt Americana acrylic sealer/finisher. I've got matte and glossy but I use more matte because the glossy, even in the smallest dose, makes everything look like lubed up plastic.Oh, gurl...

And bam!Remember that hole I had? I made a little prayer seal dangle with a suede leather scroll on it to cover than blemish up. Ain't I a stinker?

Here are the pieces post BftR5. They got a little worn but the leather is tougher where I tooled it and the dye and finish I applied really help the integrity.

Here's a close up of the seal

Questions and comments are always appreciated.If you were at Battle for the Ring 5 and got a good picture of me wearing these, I'd like a link to that photo please. I'd be really grateful.

If I can make one suggestion: your matting stamp (the one you did on the blue parts) looks like it was, well, stamped with a small stamp. If that was intentional, then cool, but if you're going for a more homogenous textured pattern, then rotate the stamp on its vertical axis as you stamp. For example, while holding it in your hand: stamp, turn 90 degrees, stamp, turn again and so on. This will help it to all blend in.

_________________- Derian -

"An octopus has eight arms, three hearts, five *, two Super Bowl rings, a beak, and the power to solve crimes."

The blue part is 3 different sized stamps but I understand what you mean. I used the largest stamp to do largest parts of the surface area and worked down to fill in the smaller areas. I rotated the stamps and went back over the areas several times with the medium and small textures but I think because of the vast amount of area that it covered, the stamp pattern is a little more obvious. I'm sure that your trained eye can pick out where I got lazy .

What I did notice is that while I was stamping, as the leather began to dry out, the depth of the stamp impression changed. I didn't soak the leather often enough and so some impressions are more defined than others.

Yup, definitely. Leather that is too damp will be too mushy and the stamp won't make a crisp impression. Leather that is too dry won't stamp deep enough. It's kind of a balance to get it right as you go.

I recommend using a small spray bottle and a clean rag or paper towel or something. Only spray a small area at a time. I usually do maybe like a 5" diameter circle or so. Work through that area, then move on. You can use bigger or smaller areas depending on how fast you can stamp. The goal (for me at least) is to get it to the right level of dampness and stay there just long enough for me to do all the tooling in that area.

_________________- Derian -

"An octopus has eight arms, three hearts, five *, two Super Bowl rings, a beak, and the power to solve crimes."

Fixed the straps on my grieves to fit my leg better. The buckles each sit on a strap so that they don't press on my leg and are more comfortable.Also, reshaped each grieve before Chaos Wars so they better fit around my knees and ankles.

While this isn't armor, it's still sweet and I wanted to share it here.

This back flag is my first plasti dip project.

It is made up of schedule 80 PVC with a 4-way joint at the top. It has two straps that secure around my waist and my chest. The two straps keep it fixed and upright while I fight. I tested it out at Oregon Opener and it worked really well. The talisman is probably 2 feet above my head and the pole runs down the center of my back so it isn't in the way of shots that would land on my shoulders. It actually rarely got hit and I only got hit in the back a few times and each time I felt the blow through the pole.

The talisman on top is removable and while fighting it sometimes popped off when it got hit. It's pretty durable. The cross part came off once when I got bashed over and was easily reattached. I like that it is strong enough to stay intact while I'm in action but comes apart easily when I fall on it or it gets hit. It's padded with pipe insulation and has pommel sized caps on the cross T and at the bottom of the pole. The joint where the talisman connects is recessed into the padding so even when the talisman is missing, the pole is still safely padded all over.

It's my first plasti dip project. I plan to make a series of different talismans that I can swap out.

This is a part of the paladin kit I am working on. I'm a knight now and my armor + a few accessories will make up a sweet holy knight aka paladin kit for my divine army, zealot, persona.

I need to make better flags but I'm really pleased with the result so far. I was able to fight hard with this on without it getting in my way.

I am making a plasti dipped back shield and I am going to cut a channel in it to allow it to be worn with the flag.